Thursday, December 13, 2012

Interview with Author-Extraordinaire LAURA KAYE!

First of all, HUGE WELCOME, Laura Kaye! Thank you so much for coming and chatting with us today. You know, I am a huge fan, so I am excited to have you where I can ask some questions.

I wasn’t sure that any of your heroes could ever replace Caden Grayson (hero of Hearts in Darkness, one of my all-time-ever favorite books) as my favorite, but I think that your newest hero from One Night with a Hero, Brady Scott, is coming close. OMG, I loved him!! Seriously, you write the BEST heroes!! So where do you start when you begin to create a new hero? Do you start with a visual, the story line needs, or the character?

Aw, you’re the sweetest, Christi! Thanks so much for hosting me here again! Stories always start for me with the character, and almost always with the hero. So by the time I start writing, I know the characters pretty well. Because One Night with a Hero was the second book in my Hero series and Brady’s sister was the heroine in the first book, I was very familiar with Brady’s backstory and inner conflicts. I knew, for example, that he feared becoming his father and never wanted a family of his own just in case. To make a story emotionally powerful, then, I always figure out the worst possible heroine he could fall in love with. In this case, that was Joss Daniels, a woman who has never wanted anything more than a family of her own. I often find visuals (*cough* Kellan Lutz *cough*), but I don’t necessarily need them to create a character.

It’s a pretty well-known fact that there is quite a bit of rivalry between the branches of the military. You even played up on this fact in One Night with a Hero having Joss calling Brady “sailor boy” and then he gives her a hard time about the fact she reads a book with a SEAL as the hero. You also work for the Naval Academy. So why are your heroes Army??? What made you decide to use that branch of the military?

Let me start off by saying, GO NAVY!!! LOL I actually gave this a lot of thought. Because I teach at the Naval Academy, I didn’t want anything about my books to come off to anyone as improper. If you’ve read my books, you know just how steamy they can be, and the last thing I wanted was a midshipman or a parent of midshipman picking up my books and think I was writing about them, if that makes sense. So I thought writing about Army guys just created a bit more distance. I won’t rule out Navy guys in the future, though ;)

I find it fascinating how you manage your personal life with your writing life. You have your own career, your husband has a very demanding job, and you have children too. When do you find time to write with everything else that you have going on with your life? Is it difficult to balance it all?

Last year, I found the balance much easier. This year, my writing career picked up a lot and now I’m constantly working under one deadline or another. It’s gotten harder. I tend to write at night at the kids go to bed or on non-teaching days, but I can no longer balance what my six-year-old recently informed me were three full-time jobs: writer, professor, and mom. Don’t you love that? *grins* I am going to be shifting to writing as my full-time career in January. *throws confetti!!!*

You are a prolific writer. How many books are you working on at any given time?

Usually just one at a time, though I tend to finish a good, clean draft of a novel-length book in 4-8 weeks, depending on how well it cooperates. Publishers are now expecting books, especially if they’re in a series, to be able to come out every 4-6 months, which means you gotta produce the manuscripts at that pace, too.

I’ve already mentioned that your first hero that I fell in love with was Caden Grayson from Hearts in Darkness. He’s a tough-looking tatted, pierced guy. In your latest release, One Night with a Hero, your heroine, Joss, was the one with the piercing and tats. Do you have any unusual tats or piercings? If so, do tell… If not, would you ever consider them?

I have two tattoos. The word “Imagine” on my right wrist and a star with three roses on my right shoulder (a rose for my mom, who died in 2005, and each of my girls). No unusual piercings though. And I’ve got more tatted guys coming for you—the series I sold to HarperCollins/Avon is called the Hard Ink series and will feature a group of ex-military guys running a renegade operation out of the back of a tattoo parlor. CanNOT wait to dive into those books!

My favorite genre to read remains paranormal romance. I’m a complete and utter vampire addict. I’m also really enjoy contemporary romance and historical romance—particularly Highlander and medieval stories. As for writing, I think contemporary romance has gained a slight edge over paranormal, though I still love writing that, too.

Do you have a dream/goal for your writing career?

My goal is to give readers stories they love and characters they care about. 2012 was a year of dreams-come-true for me. In addition to releasing five books this year, I also got an agent, sold a series to New York in a major deal, and hit the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for all of it and certainly know I didn’t do it all alone.

And here’s a quick five about what you find sexy:

Tall dark and handsome or all-american blond?Tall, dark, and handsome!

Sports car or motorcycles?Motorcycles!

Uniforms: Military, fireman, or police?Oh, puh-lease! Military!

Chest hair or man-scaped?LOL If full-on gorilla is a 10 and baby-skin smooth is a 1, I’d settle for a nice 4 *winks*

Sports fanatic or intelligent geek?Ooh, gimme the geek!

Again, thank you so much for sharing with us Laura. I absolutely adored One Night with a Hero (definitely a contender for my Top 10 list for 2012). Real quick, one last question… What’s coming next from you with your writing?

Aw, that makes me so happy, Christi! Truly glad you enjoyed it! Right now I’m writing South of Surrender, the third book in my Greek-mythology-inspired Hearts of the Anemoi series, which releases in May 2013. Then I have to whip off the third Vampire Warrior Kings novella, before I dive into the first of my Hard Ink books.

After growing up with an abusive, alcoholic father, Army Special Forces Sgt. Brady Scott vowed never to marry or have kids. Sent stateside to get his head on straight—and his anger in check—Brady’s looking for a distraction. He finds it in his beautiful new neighbor’s one-night-only offer for hot sex, but her ability to make him forget is addictive. Suddenly, Brady’s not so sure he can stay away.

…what they need is each other.

Orphaned as a child, community center director Joss Daniels swore she’d never put herself in a position to be left behind again, but she can’t deny herself one sizzling night with the sexy soldier who makes her laugh and kisses her senseless. When Joss discovers she’s pregnant, Brady’s rejection leaves her feeling abandoned. Now, they must overcome their fears before they lose the love and security they’ve found in each other, but can they let go of the past to create a future together?

Laura is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of nearly a dozen books in contemporary and paranormal romance. Growing up, Laura’s large extended family believed in the supernatural, and family lore involving angels, ghosts, and evil-eye curses cemented in Laura a life-long fascination with storytelling and all things paranormal. She lives in Maryland with her husband, two daughters, and cute-but-bad dog, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day.

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This is my personal book review blog. And it is just that....my personal opinion! ;o) I read for fun and entertainment so that's how I base my ratings. If I love a book, it will get a high rating. I read most anything within romance genre. I love to read and share that love so I hope that you find some good books here to to add to your own reading pile!